Top 10 One Sided Battles That Altered the Course of History

The list of battles fought in different parts of the world during various ages is endless. Victories almost always come at great cost. In many battles, fought for power, land, resources and revenge, both sides lost as much as half of their men. There were some occasions when the battles were largely in favor of one country, tribe or invader. Here is the list of top 10 one sided battles in world’s recorded history:

10. The Battle of Kiev:

It was on 26th September 1941 that almost a million soldiers from the Soviet Army lost the battle against the Germans in less than three months. Though, Soviets outnumbered the Germans in the ratio of 2 to 1 but lost against the better-quality armaments used by the latter. Around 650,000 Soviets were captured as Prisoners of War (POWs) during the battle. It is the largest encirclement in the military history.

9. The Battle of Cannae:

Fought on 2nd August, 216 BC, it was one of the major battles of Second Punic War. It took place in the town of Cannae in Italy. The army of Cathage, very easily defeated a numerically greater army of the Romans. The most significant fact associated with the battle is that more than 80% of the losing side was captured or killed by the army of Cathage under the leadership of legendary Hannibal.

8. The Battle of Omdurman:

Fought on 2nd September 1898, it was one of the most lop-sided battles in the world’s history. The British forces were highly outnumbered. However, they were just enough to route the Mahdist forces out of the battle ground inflicting heavy causalities. The battle was fought between 8,200 British and 17,600 Egyptian forces on one side and 52,000 Sudanese opponents on the other. However, as the battle began Mahdists lost around 10,000 men and many were badly injured whereas causalities reported by the winning side were quite a few.

7. The Battle of Carrhae:

It is a classic example of complete destruction of the one side by the other when the army of 40,000 soldiers led by Roman commander Crassus was defeated badly by an army of 9,000 Parthian soldiers. The battle fought between the powerful Roman Empire and small Parthia Republic in 53 BC near Carrhae town was one of the examples of crushing defeats in Roman military history.

6. The Battle of Blood River:

The battle was fought on 16th December 1838 between two famous tribes of South Africa named Zulu warriors and force of Boers close to the Ncome River. The war is described as one of the most lop sided ones and the end result was that around 3,000 to 3,500 Zulu warriors were dead against ‘three’ soldiers from Boer’s force. The bloodshed turned the rive red!

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5. The Battle of Vučji Do:

This battle was fought on 18th July, 1876 in Vučji Do, in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The famous battle was fought between the allied armies of Montenegrins and Herzegovinians against the Ottoman Turks with 28 and 24 battalions respectively. The war was won by the allied forces easily and the opposition received huge causalities. The losing side lost around 4,000 warriors against 178 in the winning army.

4. The Battle of Watling Street:

A battle fought in AD 60 or 61 between 4,00,000 soldiers from the British army well supported by the local tribes against 10,000 Roman soldiers is another one of those lop sided battles. The end result was a devastating obliteration of the British Army. The battle resulted in the loss of around 80,000 lives. On the other hand, Romans lost only 400 soldiers and achieved a comfortable victory.

3. The Battle of Salamis:

Fought in September 480 B.C.E, the battle of Salamis was one of the most popular one sided battles that finds mention in the word’s history. It was fought between the alliance of small Greek states and the mighty army of the Persians in the straits of Salamis. The end result was that the small army of the Greek states registered a decisive victory against the Persians, ending the invasion of Greece by the Persians which began in 480 BC.

2. The Battle of Edessa:

It is regarded as one of the most attention-grabbing battles in the history books and sometimes termed as the fight between the “David and Goliath.” The battle was fought in 259 AD between strong Roman army with 70,000 soldiers against a weak Persian army. The outcome was very awe-inspiring and resulted in the victory of the state of Persia without any major causality in comparison to that of the Roman Army.

1. The Battle of Kircholm:

Fought on 27th September, 1605 it was one of the most important battles of Polish-Swedish war of 1600-1611. The battle was fought between 11000 Swedish soldiers against 5000 Polish combatants ultimately resulting in Polish victory. Polish army just lost 100 men while around 9000 Swedes were dead. The most remarkable fact associated with the battle is that it’s final outcome was clear in just 20 minutes.